THE TRUTH
" . . . I saw that they walked not uprightly
according to the truth of the gospel."
(Galatians 2:14)
"What is truth?" asked Pilate of Jesus. We might well ask the same. Roman Catholicism claims to have the truth. So does Protestantism. Mohammedanism, Buddhism, Mormanism, Jehovah's Witnesses, Christian Science, and a host of others all claim to have the truth of God. Who are we to believe? There must be truth somewhere.
A Christian may display his Bible and declare: "Herein is truth!" But so may the Mohammedan display his Koran and say: "Herein is truth!" We are compelled to ask: "Wherein is truth?!
I believe the Bible to be the Truth of God. But what marks the difference between it and other books which are revered by thousands, yea, millions of people? Without reservation and without contradiction we can say that the PERSON of the Book makes the difference.
What is the Bible all about? The Bible is all about JESUS. The Old Testament points forward to Him, the New Testament tells of His birth, life, death, resurrection, and coming again.
Christ Jesus stands at the very center of human history, in fact, history is "His-story." He lived and worked at the center of civilization. He taught as no other man. He claimed fantastic things for Himself and produced works to support His claims. No other person ever lived such a life, or died such a death. The grave could not hold Him, He rose victorious over death and hell, and is seated at the right hand of the Majesty on high.
What is truth? We might better ask: "WHO is truth?" Jesus said to Thomas, "I am the truth!" Christ is the Truth of God. No one else deserves this title. A voice came out of the cloud and struck Peter, James, and John dumb and prostrate, and said, "This is my beloved Son with whom I am well pleased, hear ye him." Hear Him because He is God's Truth. "The truth of the gospel" is the good news concerning Him, how that He died for our sins and was buried and rose again the third day. (I Corinthians 15:1-4)
The fate of those who believe not God's Truth is predicted in the Bible: "That they all might be damned who believe not the truth" (II Thessalonians 2:12). The fate of all who believe is seen in these words: "And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true, and we are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life" (I John 5:20).
-- Editor
**********
WHEN DOUBTS ARISE
And arise they will! Sometimes we may even find ourselves asking: Am I really saved? This usually follows an episode of defeat in our Christian experience, which sets us to wondering how such a sinner as I could ever be saved.
What is the answer to our doubts?
In the first place we must establish once and for all what our salvation depends upon. Does it depend upon us, what we are or what we do? If we have the mistaken notion that our salvation depends upon ourselves, it is no wonder that we have doubts. How could we ever be sure of salvation on so shaky a foundation? If the Bible teaches anything, it teaches that our salvation does not depend upon us.
The Bible teaches that "salvation is of the Lord." It depends wholly upon Christ's sacrificial death on the cross for our sins, and upon the Father's promise, and upon our acceptance of the same.
"Christ died for our sins," is the Scriptural declaration. He died that "whosoever believeth on him should not perish but have everlasting life." How long is "everlasting?" It lasts forever. God gives us life, when we place our trust in Jesus, that lasts forever. Need we ever doubt? Dare we ever doubt? When we doubt, we are doubting Him who cannot lie. "Faithful is he that promised who also will do it." "For all the promises of God in Jesus Christ are yea, and in him Amen, unto the glory of God by us."
Christ's sacrifice on the cross of Calvary was ALL-SUFFICIENT. The Father's promise in the Word is ABSOLUTELY CERTAIN. We may rest our eternal hope upon the finished work of Christ and upon the integrity of the Father's promise, without any misgivings. Let us be done then with doubts and fears which arise from looking too much around and within ourselves, and let us be "looking unto Jesus the Author and Finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross . . . and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God."
**********
SALVATION IS OF THE LORD
By Richard W. DeHaan
Jonah 2:9
Completely hemmed in, and with no human means of escape, Jonah cried out from the belly of the fish, "Salvation is of the Lord!" Dr. Gill points out that there is something special about the Hebrew word translated "salvation" in this instance. It has one more letter than it does when referring to some temporary deliverance. Thus he concludes that Jonah refers to more than an escape from his prison at the bottom of the sea: he also is here acknowledging God's sovereign work in redemption.
It was Spurgeon who said, "No one helped to provide salvation, for God did it all by Himself. The banquet of mercy is served up by one Host, the One to whom the cattle on a thousand hills belong. None has contributed any dainties to that royal banquet. The bath of mercy, wherein black souls are washed, was filled from the veins of Jesus. No blood of martyrs mingled with that stream; no blood of noble confessors and heroes entered into the river of atonement. On yonder Cross I see the Man who tred the winepress alone, and in yonder garden I see the solitary Conqueror, who came to fight the fight single-handed, whose arm alone brought salvation." Indeed, He hath provided everything!
When Jonah cried, "Salvation is of the Lord," then "the Lord spake unto the fish," and it cast out the repentant prophet upon the dry land. At the very moment that Jonah made confession he experienced a marvelous deliverance. Thus it is with redemption. It is only when the sinner stops trying to save himself, and casts himself upon the Lord, that he finds the salvation he so sorely needs. As long as he attempts to get to Heaven by his own good works, he never obtains deliverance, Only when he trusts Christ alone does he find peace. "Salvation is of the Lord!" God provides it by grace; we receive it by faith.
(In "Our Daily Bread," copyright 1967 by Radio Bible Class, Grand Rapids, MI. Used by special permission.)
**********
A STORY I SHALL NEVER FORGET
By Dr. Bob Pierce
Shortly before the Bamboo Curtain isolated most of China from the rest of the world, this incident took place in Shanghai. It was late evening and I was landing at Shanghai Airport on a return flight from Formosa. When I managed to get a taxi I had the driver take me to my quarters at the China Inland Mission.
My arrival at the Mission was at a late hour and most of the lights were out. There was one small bulb burning in the vestibule. That one dim light revealed to me a note which advised me that a number of guests were staying at the compound that night and it had been necessary to ask everyone to double up. A room-mate had been assigned to share my room.
I tiptoed up the stairs and when I entered my small room I noticed the extra cot alongside mine . . . and it was occupied. As I wanted to be considerate of whomever my guest might be, I prepared for bed in the dark.
As I lay there, thinking back over the day, I suddenly became aware that the man next to me was crying. At first I thought he was dreaming, but I discounted that when the sobbing continued for some fifteen or twenty minutes.
I looked at the form on the other cot. His face was covered but I could see his whole body shaking from his uncontrollable weeping. I walked over and placed my hand on his shoulder.
"Friend," I said, "I don't know you . . . and I guess you don't know me, either, but whatever your trouble is, I wish you'd share it with me. The Bible says we're to bear one another's burdens and so fulfil the law of Christ."
I learned he was a missionary. As I looked at the man and listened to him speak, I knew that some great tragedy had taken place.
"Missionaries carry burdens a lot of folks don't even dream of," I said to him. "Wouldn't you like to tell me about this thing that has so broken your heart?"
The look on his face was almost one of relief, and he started to tell me his story.
Twenty-one years before, this man had come from the central part of the United States to be a missionary to China. With him was his bride, whom he described as a wonderful girl, radiant with the full bloom of Mid-Western health. The two of them had asked not to be assigned to one of the cities along the China coast. They wanted a place of difficult service -- a place where very few others would even dare to go.
And they got what they asked for. They were sent almost to the border of Western China. The people to whom they ministered were actually from Tibet. Through the years they had come across the border into China to live. It was just about as far from civilization as a person could get. It took them almost four months just to get there.
Once every three years, the missionary and his wife would return to the China coast to receive a physical check-up and to replenish dwindling supplies. As I listened to him tell the story, I could almost feel the loneliness and privation of such an existence. My heart felt heavy and I found myself saying: "It's no wonder you're discouraged, friend, your life as a missionary hasn't been an easy one."
"Oh, we didn't mind those things," he told me. "We expected life to be hard. Why, we worked seven years without a single convert. We tried hard to learn their language and to let them know we loved them, but they refused to give us their confidence.
"Then, in that seventh year something happened that was ultimately to bring about a greater victory for Christ than my wife or I would ever have attained within ourselves. God gave to us a tiny gift -- a baby girl. I helped to bring her into the world with my own rough hands. She was like a bundle of sunshine. She scattered the loneliness like sunbeams scatter the darkness of night. God had given her to us and we loved her with a full and thankful heart. But the gift was not ours, alone. She also belonged to the Tibetan people.
"As our baby grew," he said, " . . . as she began to crawl from place to place, we noticed how the Tibetans would watch her and smile. They were showing a fondness for our daughter they had never shown for us. And as our girl learned to talk, she learned Tibetan as easily as the native children did. Then one day we discovered that as we taught our child verses of Scripture and Gospel choruses, she, in turn, would teach them to the children who would say them.
"Before our eyes we were witnessing a miracle. Just when it seemed there was no hope of ever reaching the Tibetan people's hearts with the Gospel, out of our baby's mouth came the most effect witness for Christ. Our first convert came through the instrumental use of the child God had given us. Now we have eight converts!"
Secretly I thought to myself how precious this man must be in the sight of the Lord. Twenty-one years had been spent to show eight people the way to eternal life.
There was another moment of silence . . . and then he said, "As I sit here talking to you, my wife and my fourteen-year-old daughter are sailing down the river to the Pacific Ocean. They're on their way home to America."
"If they're going home why don't you go?" I asked him. "If lack of funds is preventing you, I'll wire America tonight. I know churches that would send you money to fly home so you could meet your family at the dock when they land in New York. Twenty-one years is long enough for one man to serve. Let somebody else take over."
"But what about the eight converts?" was his immediate reply. "They're young in Christ and they're struggling in their godless environment. They need guidance in their Christian growth. It would be years before someone else could learn the language. The seed we've sown might be swept away. No . . . I must return. Tomorrow morning I'm going back for three more years."
"But your family?" I said, "Wouldn't you rather be together?"
The answer that followed told me many things.
"For more than a year," he said, "there has been a numbness in my daughter's arm. When we brought her to Shanghai for medical attention, the Christian doctor took me to one side, and although it broke his heart to do so, he told me the price exacted for our work among the Tibetan people. No, it's not the loneliness and the hardship that breaks a dedicated heart. It's the far greater price of what can happen when your loved ones are subjected to the elements of an unknown land. The girl that God gave us on the mission field has contracted leprosy. This has been the big price to go with God."
Tired though I was, there was no sleep that night for me. That morning as I said goodbye to my missionary friend, and saw him head back alone for the border of Tibet, I could not escape the heart-searching realization that "a few who have so little, give so much; while so many in the world who have so much give so little."
The Lord Jesus Christ said, "Except a man deny himself and take up his cross and come after me, he cannot be my disciple."
What have you denied yourself . . . to serve Him?
**********
I CALL HIM GOD
They called Him "Fool and Traitor,"
As through the crown He went,
They cried out "Agitator,"
And brands of discontent.
From altar and from steeple
Upon this Man forlorn,
The priests and all the people
Hurled wrath and bitter scorn.
They called Him "Cheat and Faker,"
They drove Him from the door,
They cried out, "Mischief Maker,
Begone and come no more,"
From border unto border
They hounded Him, lest He
Upset the established order
And bring on anarchy.
At last they seized and tried Him
That they might have their will,
And so they crucified Him
Upon a lonely hill.
This outcast, agitator,
Beaten by scourge and rod,
They called Him "Fool and Traitor,"
-- I call Him GOD.
-- Selected
**********
WHO ELSE?
WHO else but Christ could claim to be the Door of salvation; the only Way of access to the Father; the Fountain to every thirsty soul; the Rest given to every weary heart; and then in Bethany's graveyard the Resurrection and the Life of the last day, the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the ending, the First and the Last, the Living One for evermore, the Keeper of the keys of hades and of death? Who but the Son of God could claim to be the Universal Judge, the Arbiter of the eternal destinies of the human race, the coming Bridegroom of His Church and the Universal King?
-- William Hoste.
**********
THERE IS A LIMIT TO SICKNESS
By Charles Haddon Spurgeon
"This sickness is not unto death." -- John 11:4.
From our Lord's words we learn that there is a limit to sickness. Here is an "unto" within which its ultimate end is restrained, and beyond which it cannot go. Lazarus might pass through death, but death was not to be the ultimatum of his sickness. In all sickness, the Lord saith to the waves of pain, "Hitherto shall ye go, but no further." His fixed purpose is not the destruction, but the instruction of His people. Wisdom hangs up the thermometer at the furnace mouth, and regulates the heat.
1. The limit is encouragingly comprehensive. The God of providence has limited the time, manner, intensity, repetition, and effects of all our sicknesses; each throb is decreed, each sleepless hour predestined, each relapse ordained, each depression of spirit foreknown, and each sanctifying result eternally purposed. Nothing great or small escapes the ordaining hand of Him who numbers the hairs of our head.
2. This limit is wisely adjusted to our strength, to the end designed, and to the grace apportioned. Affliction comes not at haphazard -- the weight of every stroke of the rod is accurately measured. He who made no mistakes in balancing the clouds and meting out the heavens, commits no errors in measuring out the ingredients which compose the medicine of souls. We cannot suffer too much nor be relieved too late.
3. The limit is tenderly appointed. The knife of the heavenly Surgeon never cuts deeper than is absolutely necessary. "He doth not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men." A mother's heart cries, "Spare my child"; but no mother is more compassionate than our gracious God. When we consider how hardmouthed we are, it is a wonder that we are not driven with a sharper bit. The thought is full of consolation, that He who has fixed the bounds of our habitation, has also fixed the bounds of our tribulation.
(In "Morning and Evening," Zondervan Publishing House, Grand Rapids, MI)
**********
